Guest post by Izzie Chea
From humble beginnings in the busy kitchen of an Oakland, CA home in 2016, the idea of bringing children’s Spanish and bilingual books was coming to fruition. Maceo Cabrera-Estévez, Cuban-American mom and book lady for Barefoot Books, noticed the demand for high quality, authentic, and representative Spanish and bilingual children’s literature. There was nowhere to go that would guarantee that bilingual and Spanish books were not just poor translations of English books, and so Booklandia was born.
Our mission at Booklandia is to assist in creating beautiful, representative, and inclusive home libraries for children. Books from Booklandia are sourced from across Latin America, South America, México, the Caribbean, Spain, and the US and include a diverse representation of characters, stories, themes, and authors.
Part of Booklandia is the commitment to building community, and as a result, Booklandia has a presence at many festivals and events in the SF Bay Area as well as regular free bilingual storytime events in California and Texas. The success of these events is shown in the smiling faces of children when they see books and characters with similar names and features as theirs.
As a current challenge to keep building community, the #LEEMOS3000 Reading Challenge is live throughout the month of March. Readers of all ages and levels are encouraged to log hours all month long and contribute to the collective goal of 3000 hours reading bilingual and Spanish books.
To learn more about Booklandia, please visit www.booklandiabox.com!
To join our #LEEMOS3000 Challenge, please visit https://booklandiabox.com/blogs/news/leemos3000-challenge!
Izzie Chea is Marketing Director at Booklandia. She is a Dominican/Mexican-American writer, storyteller, music teacher, mother, and wife. She resides in ultra-diverse Houston, TX, and enjoys reading with a cafecito, her piano, and the family cat, Simon.
A Bilingual and Spanish Booklist from Booklandia
